[2][3] He has been described as being one of the founders of New York school of minimalist music, first initiated by La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Philip Glass, Steve Reich, and Phil Niblock, although he prefers to call himself a maximalist.

At the age of 12 he started playing backup conga and bongo drum for Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, Kenneth Anger, and Tiny Tim.

From 1968 to 1972, Palestine studied vocal interpretation with Pandit Pran Nath,[5] experimented on kinetic light sculptures with Len Lye, composed music for Tony and Beverly Conrad’s film Coming Attractions, taught at CalArts with Morton Subotnick,[5] created the sound and movement piece Illuminations with Simone Forti, and developed his own alternative synthesizer: the Spectral Continuum Drone Machine.

Throughout the seventies Palestine created records, videos, sculptural objects, abstract expressionist visual scores, and performed long piano concerts regularly in his loft on North Moore Street[6] in Tribeca in the company of his bevy of stuffed animals.

[8] In addition to creating exhibitions, Palestine performed regularly, re-releasing older material and developing new videos and sonic projects.